Disclaimer: No I do not own Yugioh.
Tournament of Tears
Chapter 22: Hatred of Shadow (Part 1)
Haku- 4000
Judai- 4000
Ichigo- 4000
Haku drew, ignoring the roars and explosions that were going off all around him. He knew that his associates, the other Speakers, were being destroyed by these powerful demons, and that they probably wouldn't be able to uphold master Midnight's wishes, no matter how hard they tried. But, for the first time in his unlife, he didn't intend to follow the wishes of Master Midnight at all. No, this was his duel to win, and it was for Silence's sake. ("She was destroyed because of you, Ichigo Pilkington. Because of your monstrous blood my love was brutally destroyed….for that, I refuse to accept defeat until after I wipe you out!")
Ichigo's eyes widened at how hateful of a glare he was getting from Haku. ("Why's he so mad at me? What did I do to him?")
Judai looked at both boys and wondered if maybe he should have just let Ichigo deal with this. After all, Ichigo seemed better suited to deal with this kind dueling. ("I've had my share of Darkness Games, but the kid's a half-demon after…") Then he noticed that Ichigo's features were completely human. ("Weird…why's that?")
"How dare you ignore me!" Haku drew. "I activate the field magic card Forest of 1000 Curses!" All around them the cityscape changed into a towering mass of rotted, dead, and twisted black trees. "Whenever a trap card goes to my graveyard, I can add one Forest Curse magic card from my deck to my hand."
"Whenever a trap goes to the graveyard?" Ichigo blinked in surprise. "Wow…that's really good…"
Haku glowered and placed a card face-down onto his disk. "You shouldn't be so carefree, because if you lose I'll make sure to put your soul through the most horrible forms of torture imaginable. I set one monster face-down on the field…" A card shimmered into existence behind the set monster. "And I'll place one card face-down behind it. End turn."
Judai drew. Fanning out his hand he nodded wisely and placed a card onto it. "I summon Elemental Hero-Featherman (1000/1000) to the field in attack mode." A green-feathered winged superhero appeared on the field, struck a pose, and then landed in Judai's monster zone with its arms crossed. "Also, I activate the equipment magic card Feather Wings!" Featherman's wings turned into green energy versions of themselves and doubled in size. "Now I'll fuse Featherman with Burst Lady thanks to Polymerization!" Featherman disappeared and was replaced by a green and red superhero with a single wing on its back and a dragon's head for an arm. "I summon Elemental Hero Flame Wingman!" (2100/1200)
Ichigo blinked at Judai. "Sensei, why did you equip Featherman and then fuse him?"
"Why?" Judai smiled as the same giant green wings that had been on Featherman appeared on Flame Wingman's back. "Because of my Feather Wings equipment magic card. It activates when the equipped monster is sent to the graveyard, and during that turn I can select one Elemental Hero in play that can now attack the opponent directly!" Flame Wingman launched high into the sky above Haku's field and aimed the now open dragon head down towards the Speaker. "Flame Wingman, attack his life points directly! Flame Shooter!" The head belched fire down in waves that swallowed up Haku for a moment, before it dissipated and the superhero returned to its owner's field.
Haku- 5900
Judai- 4000
Ichigo- 4000
Judai lifted an eyebrow at that. "Interesting…"
"Nutrient Z is a trap that activates when the opponent damages me with an attack that deals 2000 or more life points of damage. Before the attack lands I gain 4000 life points, hence your attack did nothing more then let me gain some life and add one Forest Curse card to my hand." Haku removed a card from his deck and added it to his hand. "Nice attempt, human, but you're no match for me."
Judai slid a card into his disk. "Before you get really big-headed, have a look at this. It's called Alpha Strike, and it activates when an Elemental Hero successfully attacks you directly. You take that Hero's attack in damage."
"What?" Haku's eyes widened as Flame Wingman was suddenly in front of him. "Damn…" Then he was swallowed up by a raging tornado of fire.
Haku- 3800
Judai- 4000
Ichigo- 4000
Judai inserted the last card in his hand into his disk. "I'll set this face-down and then pass the turn onto you, Ichigo."
Ichigo nodded and drew. He stared at the drawn card for a few moments, and then frowned. ("No monsters…") "I place one card face-down on the field and end my turn."
Haku snarled and drew. As his eyes realized what card he had drawn, his lips curled into a calm sneer. "Your fight isn't with me human, and therefore I'll have to cut you off from this duel permanently! I activate Game-Breaker!"
"Game-Breaker?" Judai's eyes went wide, because he instantly recognized such an unorthodox card. "That magic card allows the activating duelist to immediately end the duel in a draw if he has more cards in his hand than one opponent…but in the case of a multiplayer game…"
"In the case of a multiplayer game, this card immediately declares the selected duelist as a special player in the game. They shuffled their field, hand, removed from play pile, and deck together, reset their life points, and wait until the remaining players end their duel. The winner of that duel has all cards on his field, graveyard, hand and removed from play pile returned to their deck, and then duels the special player. Of course, while the special player gets to draw an opening hand, the winning player only gets to draw two cards." Haku inserted the magic card into his duel disk and Judai's disk beeped as it deactivated. "That means it's just you and me, Pilkington."
Haku- 3800
Judai- Removed from duel
Ichigo- 4000
Haku sighed melodramatically and discarded his magic card to the graveyard. "Game-Breaker must be the first card I play during the turn, and it ends my turn immediately after use. Therefore, you get a reprieve Pilkington."
Judai looked over at Ichigo, worry in his eyes. ("I'm sorry Ichigo, I can't do anything to help you against this…") Then that worry faded away as he realized what look was on Ichigo's face.
Ichigo smiled cheerfully and drew. "That's alright, I really didn't want Judai-sensei to get all the glory anyway." Inserting the drawn card into his hand, he realized that there was still a downside to this duel. And that was that he had no monster cards in his hand. ("It'll definitely be a problem…")
"What's the matter? Are you suddenly losing your nerve?" Haku smirked as he realized this fool was human, completely and utterly. He had no special powers now, and therefore would be easy to crush.
Ichigo realized that he didn't necessarily need to summon a monster yet, since his opponent only had a monster face-down on the field. "For now I guess I'll just end my turn."
Haku drew. "I activate Pot of Greed! I draw two cards." Adding two more cards to his hand, Haku pointed at his face-down monster. "Now I flip summon my Magician of Faith!" A purple-haired spellcaster appeared on the field, light emanating from its body. (300/400)
"This monster's special ability allows me to return one magic card in my graveyard to my hand." His graveyard slot spat out a green-bordered card. "Of course, that card is my Pot of Greed, which I activate once more." He added two more cards to his hand. "Now I sacrifice my Magician of Faith to normal summon my Forest Wraith!"
The magician faded off the field, replaced by a black-hooded reaper holding a wooden scythe. (1400/1300) "When this monster is summoned and my Forest of 1000 Curses is in play, I may return a trap card from my graveyard to my hand." His graveyard spat out his Nutrient Z trap card. "After which I must discard a card from my hand." He simply pushed the Nutrient Z trap back into the graveyard. "And of course, the effect of Forest of 1000 Curses allows me to add a Forest Curse magic card from my deck to my hand when a trap goes to my graveyard." His deck spat out a card, which he added to his already large hand of cards. "After this, I activate the equipment magic card Twin Swords of Flashing Light Tryce!"
His Reaper's scythe was replaced by a pair of glittering golden swords. "This equipment magic card's special ability has a cost, which is that I must discard a card at random from my hand." A single card from his hand faded into nothingness. "And that card was Trap Jammer, a counter trap card. That allows me to add another Forest Curse card from my deck to my hand." His deck spat out another card, which he almost absent-mindedly placed into his hand while he explained what his equipment magic card did. "The equipped monster loses 500 attack points, but in return may now attack twice during the battle phase." (900/1300)
Ichigo smiled slightly. "That won't take me down, Haku."
"I can't beat you this turn, but trust me…you'll be destroyed!" Haku pointed at the focus of his rage. "Wraith, slash through him! Tryce Flash Slash!" The reaper leapt across the field and slashed its sword across Ichigo's chest, sending the boy stumbling back.
Haku- 3800
Ichigo- 3100
"Forest Wraith's special ability activates now!" Haku sneered coldly. "When it inflicts battle damage to you, I may repeat its effect that activates when it is summoned. Therefore, I may return a single trap card from my graveyard, and then I must discard a card." His graveyard spat out a single card, which he simply reinserted into his graveyard. "I send my returned Trap Jammer to my graveyard to let me add a Forest Curse card from my deck to my hand!" As he did this, he eyes played across all of the cards in his deck. ("This deck will defeat you…it must defeat you!")
Shuffling his deck and returning it to his disk, Haku pointed at Ichigo. "Once more, Tryce Flash Slash!" The reaper launched in again and slashed its sword across Ichigo's chest, sending him stumbling once more. "I return Trap Jammer and discard it, adding a Forest Curse card from my deck to my hand." After doing this, he returned his deck once more to its slot.
Haku- 3800
Ichigo- 2200
Ichigo managed to recover fairly quickly from the inflicted pain. With a weak smile on his face, he held up his hand. "You'll have to set most of those cards to prevent them from being discarded, and if you discard traps to get more Forest Curse magic cards, you'll have to still discard until your hand is six cards."
"True, except not quite." Haku inserted a card from his hand into a duel disk slot. "I activate the continuous magic card Forest Curse of Apathy. During each of my standby phases I must discard a card from my hand, but I no longer have a maximum hand size. Also, I'll place a card face-down on my field and end my turn." A card shimmered into existence on the forest floor next to his Wraith. "Well, Pilkington, is this the end? Or do you intend to actually summon a monster?"
Ichigo drew. As he looked at the drawn card, his eyes went insanely wide. ("What…what is this?") His hands began to tremble as he slowly looked over each of the cards in his hand for the first time. ("These cards…") Suddenly he felt it again. It was the confidence he had truly lost after this insanity had begun. "It's all meant to be fun."
"Excuse me?" Haku lifted one eyebrow questioningly. "What are you talking about?"
"This game isn't for battle, it's for fun…" Ichigo smiled happily. "I'll show you, okay?"
"I grow tired of your stupid babbling. Either do something worthwhile or surrender." Haku snarled through clenched, his anger increasing at the fact that this insolent little brat would dare to suggest he could change his opponent's mind.
"If you insist!" Ichigo threw the card he had drawn down onto his disk. "I summon Final Shadow Night Slasher in attack mode!" (1150/900) The night sky seemed to grow silent…until a humanoid form touched down onto Ichigo's field. It was surrounded by a black cloak that hid its face and outline. The only way to tell it was a humanoid was that a pair of black leather boots was at the bottom of the cloaked mass.
"Final…Shadow?" Judai stared at the monster in amazement. ("What is it? Some kind of Cyber Shadow?")
Ichigo continued to smile as he pointed at the Wraith. "The effect of Night Slasher is that when he is summoned, one monster with less current or original attack in play on the opponent's field is destroyed!" The Wraith howled in pain and exploded into dust.
Haku braced himself against the surprisingly powerful backlash that accompanied that destruction. "I won't lose to your annoying warrior decks!"
"We'll see! Night Slasher, direct attack!" The black-cloaked faded out of sight and appeared behind Haku. A black-gloved hand emerged from the dark fabric and slashed a small knife across the undead boy's back. Then in that same instant it returned to Ichigo's field.
Haku- 2700
Ichigo- 2200
Haku snarled and his face-down card flipped up. "Reveal Truth of Hatred! This card activates when a dark warrior monster attacks me directly! From my deck, I can add one Hatred Avenger monster card to my hand." A card emerged from his deck, which he added to his hand.
"Hatred Avenger?" Both Judai and Ichigo were surprised by that. It sounded like something that would come from the same mind that created Elemental Heroes and Cyber Shadows, just when angry.
"These creatures are my soul cards, born from my hatred of you! This deck's very existence is here to counter your deck, and to utterly annihilate you, Ichigo Pilkington! I hate you with every fabric of my existence, and as such I came to this battle prepared only to defeat you!" Haku's free hand clenched tightly into a fist, the sheer pressure of that grip so strong the bones in his hand began to make cracking noises, right up until he relaxed. "When this duel is done, I intend to make you regret ever having stood against Master Midnight!"
Ichigo's rather happy-go-lucky expression slowly faded, replaced by a much more serious expression that he had shown far too much of lately. "Is that so? Then I'm sorry to try and convince you otherwise, Haku." He looked at the cards in his hand, and then decided what his next move would be. "I place one card face-down on the field and end my turn." As the new face-down card shimmered into existence next to his original set card, he felt strangely at home now. Maybe this was his fate, to forever duel against the shadows…
"Draw!" Haku's angry yell brought Ichigo back to the situation at hand. He had to win this duel, and because of his opponent's resolve, he was fairly certain this would be a duel to the end. "During my standby phase, I must discard a card from my hand. I discard Hell Polymer to add a Forest Curse magic card from my deck to my hand." As he did this, a card in his hand started to glow. "At this time, my quickplay Forest Curse of Demise activates! When a Forest Curse magic card is added to my hand, I may discard this card to draw two more cards." Inserting the card into his graveyard, the undead boy drew two more cards and added them to now enormous hand. "Are you ready, Ichigo Pilkington? This is where I become serious, and show you the power of my hateful soul!"
"I'm ready." Ichigo knew his course of action. It was either duel or die, and there was too much riding on his victory for him to toss this game. "Bring on your best, and I'll defeat it!"
To be continued…
Author's Notes: That's right, I actually finished a chapter of this story. You may now all proceed to pummeling me to death for taking so long, I will not complain.
So anyway, ummm…. I don't intend to make excuses. Instead, I intend to run away if this blows up in my face. Later.